"Why, monsieur, I am not inattentive--am I? I learn my lessons well--"
"Oh, a child can do that! and what more do you do?"
"What more can I do?"
"Oh, certainly, not much; but you are a teacher, are you not, as well as a pupil?"
"Yes."
"You teach lace-mending?"
"Yes."
"A dull, stupid occupation; do you like it?"
"No--it is tedious."
"Why do you pursue it? Why do you not rather teach history, geography, grammar, even arithmetic?"
"Is monsieur certain that I am myself thoroughly acquainted with these studies?"
"I don't know; you ought to be at your age."
"But I never was at school, monsieur--"
"Indeed! What then were your friends--what was your aunt about? She is very much to blame."
"No monsieur, no--my aunt is good--she is not to blame--she does what she can; she lodges and nourishes me" (I report Mdlle. Henri's phrases literally, and it was thus she translated from the French). "She is not rich; she has only an annuity of twelve hundred francs, and it would be impossible for her to send me to school."
"Rather," thought I to myself on hearing this, but I continued, in the dogmatical tone I had adopted:-"It is sad, however, that you should be brought up in ignorance of the most ordinary branches of education; had you known something of history and grammar you might, by degrees, have relinquished your lace-mending drudgery, and risen in the world."
"It is what I mean to do."
"How? By a knowledge of English alone? That will not suffice; no respectable family will receive a governess whose whole stock of knowledge consists in a familiarity with one foreign language."
"Monsieur, I know other things."
"Yes, yes, you can work with Berlin wools, and embroider handkerchiefs and collars--that will do little for you."
Mdlle. Henri's lips were unclosed to answer, but she checked herself, as thinking the discussion had been sufficiently pursued, and remained silent.
"Speak," I continued, impatiently; "I never like the appearance of acquiescence when the reality is not there; and you had a contradiction at your tongue's end."
"Monsieur, I have had many lessons both in grammar, history, geography, and arithmetic. I have gone through a course of each study."
"Bravo! but how did you manage it, since your aunt could not afford lo send you to school?"